AFL-CIO Adds General Counsel

As it gears up for an ambitious get-out-the-vote effort this year, the AFL-CIO is expanding its legal team with the addition of Craig Becker as co-general counsel.

Becker starts with the title of general counsel on July 1, joining Lynn Rhinehart, who has served as general counsel since 2009. The two will serve as co-general counsels. A former member of the National Labor Relations Board, Becker is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law School.

Becker “is a person of incredible intellect, experience and integrity, and with his leadership, we will be able to expand our work in crucially important areas at a crucially important time,” said Rhinehart in a statement.

In April, the federation formally launched an unrestricted super PAC, Workers’ Voice, that aims to mobilize voters with the help of union members at 14,000 work sites around the country. Becker can be expected to help the AFL-CIO navigate the changed campaign finance landscape in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling to deregulate corporate and union political spending.

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March 13, 2015

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., right, hugs Harold Schaitberger, General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, after the Congressman spoke at the IAFF's Legislative Conference General Session at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, March 9, 2015. The day featured addresses by members of Congress and Vice President Joe Biden.